Trusting Him on hard days.

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” – Job 13:15

When things are good, it is easy to offer thanks to God for his blessings.  But when things go wrong, we immediately start asking what we did wrong to deserve this, or why God would be so uncaring toward us?  But at no point are we told that we should respond this way.

I know when I struggle I find myself turning inward.  I do not pray or trust or read His word.  I find someway to be focussed on myself.  Now don’t get me wrong, I could justify any of it… I might say, I’ll go visit so and so to encourage them.  Or I might say, I need a break, I’ll go see a movie.  Not that these are bad things, and sometimes I do it out of a sincere heart.  But not all the time.  Sometimes, I am hiding from my discomfort, my pain, my struggle.  Instead of turning to Christ and trusting Him on days like that, I turn to my own ideas.  The result is just that much more time spent away from where I need to be.

The bottom line in my mind is this is a personal temptation.  Temptation to put my faith in myself instead of God.  This is exactly what the Devil would have me do.  But Christ was clear when he said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  I trust him with my eternal soul, why not with my daily peace?  The answer is I should in fact trust him with my daily peace.  To choose not to is to turn essentially to a false god.  (a false god named ‘self.’)

Turning to that false god is often taken lightly in our world.  But turning to false gods is a life and death situation.  Ex.  “You shall have no other gods before me.”  and  “You shall love The Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength.”   Life and death.  Do we look at it as a life and death question?

I know three men who understood it.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

– Daniel 3:16-18